


of lily pads and lovers

by peachtones



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, DayFour, M/M, Magical Realism, True Love's Kiss, Witches, Wizards, ft the ambiguity of what a true love's kiss truly means, not clickbait!!, soobin gets turned into a FROG
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:55:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26889982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachtones/pseuds/peachtones
Summary: They all turned to look at Kai as he entered the living room with his arms outstretched, a frog held between his hands.“Oh my god,” Beomgyu said, pushing himself up from the floor using the coffee table, “is thatSoobin?”
Relationships: Choi Soobin/Choi Yeonjun
Comments: 15
Kudos: 371
Collections: freak week 2020





	of lily pads and lovers

There was a loud crackle from the other room, soon accompanied by the smell of singed roses drifting into the living room from Namjoon’s study.

“ _Hyuuuung!_ ” came Kai’s voice, slightly panicked, followed by the quick patter of his footsteps towards the living room where Taehyun and Beomgyu were sitting on their side of the coffee table, reviewing flashcards, while Namjoon reorganized his bookcase. They all turned to look at him as he entered the living room with his arms outstretched, a frog held between his hands.

“ _Oh my god,_ ” Beomgyu said, dropping the stack of flashcards in his hands and pushing himself up from the floor using the coffee table, “is that _Soobin_?”

With a pathetic whimper, Kai nodded. “I was practicing with one of Hobi-hyung’s curse jars like he told me to and I don’t know what I did wrong while I was working on it, but it turned Soobin into a frog.” He looked at said frog -- no, _Soobin,_ it was Soobin -- and blubbered, “ _I turned Soobin-hyung into a frog._ ”

“Which jar was it?” Namjoon asked, far too calm for having just had one of his students confess to turning another one of his students into a frog (even if it was an accident).

“The fairytale one,” he sniffed.

Namjoon nodded sagely, returning to his bookshelf. “It should wear off in about a week.”

“ _A week!?_ ” Kai squawked, as Soobin croaked in his hands, as if sharing the same sentiment.

“Well, unless we can find a prince or a princess, get in contact with them and have them agree to kiss Soobin to lift the curse, and then get them all the way over here to actually kiss Soobin, all in under a week, we’re out of luck.” He looked over his shoulder at Kai, and then where Beomgyu and Taehyun were still at the coffee table. “Do you know any royalty?”

They both shook their heads, and Kai sighed. He brought Soobin to his chest, cradling him in his arms. “I’m sorry, Hyung,” he said softly. Soobin ribbited in response.

Almost instantaneously, Namjoon turned back around, a book halfway to the shelf in his hand. “Wait, there is another way…” he trailed off, watching as the three of them practically leaned towards him in anticipation. He raised his eyebrows, “how do you break curses in fairytales, hm?”

“ _True love’s kiss_ ,” Taehyun answered without hesitation.

“But Soobin doesn’t believe in soulmates!” Kai protested.

Beomgyu let out the most long-suffering groan, face planting into his flashcards on the coffee table. He rolled his head to the side so he could be heard as he said, “true love and soulmates are two different concepts, Kai.”

“Beomgyu’s right,” Namjoon agreed. “While soulmates can possess true love between them, not every instance of true love means people are soulmates, and vice versa. Neither have to be romantic either, it can be a strictly platonic experience.”

Without a second thought after hearing Namjoon’s words, Kai planted a kiss on Soobin’s slimy head and waited for something, anything to happen -- but nothing did. He let out a particularly exasperated sigh. "I'm sorry I don't love you enough to break the curse, Hyung," he mumbled.

"Kai, that's not what true love is--" Beomgyu started to say, but was cut off by Taehyun.

"Since it didn’t work for Kai, should we all give Soobin a kiss, just to be sure?" Taehyun suggested. “We can start with Yeonjunnie-hyung.”

Immediately Soobin began wriggling in Kai's grip as if he was trying to escape his grasp, croaking as he did. 

Taehyun had the audacity to laugh. "Okay, nevermind, I think that's a hard no from Soobin."

Namjoon set down his book, crossing the living room to put his hand on Kai’s shoulder. “Why don’t you take Soobin out to the pond for now, until we figure something out?”

Kai redirected the question to the frog in his hands. “Hyung, would you like to go to the pond?”

Soobin ribited in agreement to being taken to the pond.

“How about we all take a trip out there, you guys have been studying long enough.” Taehyun and Beomgyu made noises of delight, immediately abandoning the coffee table to stand up and stretch, all but running over to Kai to get a look at frog Soobin. Namjoon followed the action and proceeded to blink, quickly going to count the apprentices standing before him. _One, two, three, four...four…_ where was the fifth one? “Wait, where did Yeonjun go?” he asked, double checking his count. Yep, he was definitely missing one. “He was in here earlier.”

“I’m pretty sure he went out to the greenhouse, with Jungkook and Yoongi hyungs,” Kai said. “He walked through the kitchen when I was getting something to drink earlier.”

“Then let's bring them something to eat, yeah? We can all have a picnic in the greenhouse for lunch.”

The greenhouse in question was a sprawling glass structure that took up a good portion of Namjoon’s generously sized backyard, which quadrupled in size once entered. A sizable chunk of the greenhouse was dedicated to normal agriculture -- fruits, vegetables, and herbs -- and standard vegetation spattered among the magical greenery and potion ingredients the greenhouse had originally been constructed for.

“ _Hey!_ ” Namjoon called over to the trio crouched around one of his strawberry bushes, “you better not be eating all of my strawberries!”

“We’re not!” Yoongi called back as he stuffed a strawberry into his mouth.

“We’re not, Hyung!” Jungkook agreed, also shoving a strawberry into his mouth. “Promise!”

Yeonjun said something too, but it was lost between his throat and his lips because he was trying to eat something at the same time -- more likely than not a strawberry.

Jungkook pointed to the younger, “yeah, what Yeonjun said.”

“Catch a frog?” Yoongi asked, catching sight of Soobin still cradled against Kai’s chest as they walked closer.

“Nope,” Namjoon said, “Soobin.”

“ _You turned Soobin into a frog!?”_ Jungkook exclaimed, standing up to get a good look at the frog that Kai was holding. Soobin attempted to make himself smaller to hide in Kai’s hands, with little success.

“Kai did,” Beomgyu corrected.

“I didn’t do it on purpose! It was an accident!” Kai whined, before trudging ahead of Namjoon, past where Yoongi, Jungkook, and Yeonjun all were. With the indignance of a child, he said, “I’m going to the pond!”

They watched him get a few paces away before Namjoon turned back to the boys blatantly gobbling up his strawberries without a shred of remorse, holding up a rather large wicker basket, “anyways, I brought lunch. Should we head over to the field to eat?”

A short while later, after lunch and a short nap in the soft grass of the field, Yeonjun made his way over to the pond that Kai had placed Soobin in. He crouched down at the water’s edge and took a moment to just look at the water before he noticed a frog sitting on a rock, presumably sunbathing. _Soobin._ At least, he was pretty sure the frog was Soobin. It could’ve been a random frog, for all he knew. 

Just to be sure, he said, “Soobin, if that’s really you, can you like...I don’t know. Ribbit or something? Just so I can be sure I’m actually talking to you and not a regular old frog.”

As requested, the maybe-actually-Soobin-frog ribbited.

Immediately, Yeonjun was suspicious. “...okay, that could’ve just been a really well-timed coincidence. Just to be one hundred percent sure that it is you, can you turn towards me and ribbit?”

The frog did a little shuffle, turning in place until it was facing Yeonjun and blinked, before ribbiting with purpose.

He blew out a breath. “So, Kai really did turn you into a frog, huh?” He extended his index finger and reached out, intending to gently poke Soobin -- he still wasn’t really comprehending that Soobin, _his Soobin_ , was actually a frog. He had thought that everyone had been joking when they had said Kai turned Soobin into a frog, until Soobin didn’t show up for lunch and Namjoon carefully explained that Kai had been practicing with one of Hoseok’s curse jars with Soobin in the room, and an attempt to neutralize the curse had backfired onto Soobin -- but Soobin lunged forward and bit him instead. Startled, Yeonjun let out a surprised yell and fell back on his ass as he quickly pulled his finger back, holding it against his chest and shielding it with his hand like Soobin-frog had severely wounded him.

“Okay, I get you’re not happy about being a frog, but you didn’t need to bite me!”

Soobin croaked, hopping from his rock onto Yeonjun’s knee and looking up at him.

“I’m getting some mixed signals from you here, Soobin.” Yeonjun paused, like he was expecting a response from Soobin. One never came. He sighed, carefully folding his legs under him without disturbing Soobin perched on his knee and resting his elbow against his knee as he put his head in his hand, pouting down at Soobin. “Namjoon-hyung said you’re going to be stuck like this for a week. That’s an awfully long time to be a frog, I don’t think I could do it. If it was me in your place, I think I’d let everybody I knew kiss me if it meant that they could potentially break the curse.” 

He extended his finger towards Soobin again -- this time he didn’t bite it, only blinked before reaching out one of his webbed feet and resting it against Yeonjun’s fingertip. Almost like they were holding hands. (If frogs and humans could hold hands. Yeonjun counted it as holding hands.) “But y’know, that got me thinking -- when they talk about true love’s kiss being able to break curses, do they mean the person who’s doing the kissing, or the person who is being kissed? Or does it have to be a mutual true love? Like in Sleeping Beauty. Is the princess the prince’s true love? Is the prince the princess’s true love? Is it a mutual true love, and that’s why the prince is able to break the curse when he kisses the princess?” He frowned, glancing out at the pond. “Because, I do love you a lot, Soobin. Unconditionally. That’s true love, right? I love you no matter what. But what if it works the other way, or is mutual and you don’t love me back in the same way? I think that’d be pretty cruel, for a curse that is promised to break with true love’s kiss, not to break just because two people don’t hold the same amount of love for each other.” 

He looked back down at Soobin, who had moved from having just been holding onto Yeonjun’s finger to leaning against it, his little froggy eyes closed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to ramble on about the metrics of what makes a true love’s kiss an actual _true love’s kiss_.” He bit his lower lip, chewing on it for a moment, “that was also kind of a confession. I love you, Soobin. But, ah, I’m pretty sure you already knew that. I also...I also wanted to know if it would be alright for me to kiss you, to at least try and break the curse for you, since I imagine being a frog when you’re used to being human isn’t entirely pleasant, and I’m pretty sure I meet one of the true love’s kiss requirements for the three different scenarios I worked out. If it doesn’t work out…” He ran his hand through his hair, genuinely frustrated at the thought of Soobin being stuck as a frog for an entire week. “I don’t know. I don’t know, I guess I’ll let you live out your froggy life in peace for the coming week, if it doesn’t work. Bring you bugs to munch on, if you’ll let me, because I want to make sure you’re eating well, even if you are a frog.”

Soobin had opened his eyes, and was looking up in Yeonjun’s direction. Yeonjun took that as a good sign. He put his other hand in front of Soobin, enough that it would take an actual hop for him to get onto his hand.

“ _Please_ ,” he whispered, “just let me try.”

After what seemed like a moment’s hesitation, Soobin hopped into Yeonjun’s open palm. A sincere smile spread across Yeonjun’s lips. 

“Thank you,” he said, “for trusting me enough to do this.”

He sat up properly, bringing his other hand up so Soobin could sit comfortably between his palms.

“Alright.” He blew out a breath. “Here goes nothing.”

Yeonjun slowly brought Soobin closer to his lips, closing his eyes as he unceremoniously leaned down and pressed his lips firmly to the top of Soobin’s head. He gently pulled back, cracking one of his eyes open to see if anything had changed since he’d closed them -- nope. Soobin was still a frog.

He was about to let out a defeated sigh and return Soobin to the rock he had found him on when a warm, bright golden light seemed to shoot out from the very core of Soobin’s being, before spreading all over his body until he was enveloped in it, leaving a golden, glowing frog shaped form in his hands were Soobin once was. The light was so harsh that Yeonjun had to squint to even look in the direction of his hands, which had extended as far away from his body as they could get so he didn't blind himself from the glow radiating from Soobin.

It was only a matter of seconds before the glowing form in his hands started to change shape, quickly growing in size and all the while being completely feather-light, practically floating. The position of Yeonjun’s hands changed as a torso seemed to elongate between them. A head, legs, and arms all grew out from the torso, the latter of which reaching for and grabbing onto Yeonjun’s own as fingers (and presumably toes) appeared. Almost as quick as it had started the transformation ended, the golden light dissipating to reveal Soobin. 

Soobin, who had returned to his human form dressed in what appeared to a prince’s outfit -- all white and cream and baby blue, embroidered with gold and topped off with ruffles and tassels and a sash -- which definitely was not the sweatshirt and jeans he had been wearing earlier, all of which was rustling just ever so slightly in an invisible breeze that Yeonjun couldn’t feel.

Soobin’s eyes opened as his feet touched the ground -- only to widen in shock as his shoe slipped on a mossy rock. He panickedly grabbed onto the collar of Yeonjun’s shirt to try and regain his balance, but that only resulted in him dragging Yeonjun with him as he fell back into the pond with a loud _splash._ Thankfully, the pond wasn’t very deep. Yeonjun was the first of the two to break the water’s surface, sputtering as he dragged his fingers through his wet hair to get it out of his face and Soobin quickly followed behind him, doing the same.

“I break your curse and this is how you repay me?” he said immediately, sounding indignant as he ran his hand over his face, “by trying to drown me?”

“It wasn’t on purpose,” Soobin groaned as he pulled a piece of algae off of his face and dropped it back into the water, before returning his hand to his face to do another cursory sweep in case he missed any.

“ _Come here_ ,” Yeonjun growled as he reached for the lapels of Soobin’s jacket. 

Soobin immediately leaned back into the water to try and evade Yeonjun’s hands, putting his own hands out to stop him from getting any closer. But it was fruitless, Yeonjun already having sloshed through the water and closed the gap between them. Whatever Soobin had been expecting from Yeonjun, having the older’s hands slide up from his lapels to gingerly take his face in his hands and press their foreheads together definitely was not it.

“I was so scared it wasn’t going to work,” he whispered, body sagging.

“ _Of course it was going to work_ ,” Soobin told him softly. “What, did you really think it wasn’t going to?” 

He didn’t answer him. Soobin raised his hand and placed it on the side of Yeonjun’s neck, brushing his thumb lightly against Yeonjun’s jaw. Yeonjun pulled back far enough just to look him in the eye. Soobin smiled at him, dimples just barely poking into his cheeks, and gently pulled Yeonjun closer by the neck to close the miniscule gap between them. He tilted his head up, pressing their lips together as he grabbed onto the soaked sleeve of Yeonjun’s shirt; Yeonjun immediately reciprocated.

“Wait,” Yeonjun said, reluctantly pulling away from the kiss after a moment, not missing the way Soobin tried to trail after, the way he was staring at his mouth, the slight flush on his cheeks, “does that mean--?”

“ _Yes,_ ” Soobin sighed, sounding almost fondly exasperated. “I thought I made it clear when I kissed you.”

 _Oh_. A smile immediately appeared on Yeonjun’s lips. “Say it,” he kindly demanded, “I want to hear it from your lips.”

Soobin rolled his eyes, but hooked his arms around Yeonjun’s neck. “I love you,” he said, fingers twisting together behind the older’s neck. “You’re my true love’s kiss, or whatever.”

The smile on Yeonjun’s lips grew wider, and then he leaned back in to capture Soobin’s lips in, Soobin welcoming them with his own grin.

**Author's Note:**

> deleted scene:
> 
> Seokjin stepped out from behind a topiary, a large wide-brimmed hat on his head and a pair of pruning shears in his gloved hands, “I know you two are having a heartfelt moment, but can you please make out somewhere that’s a little more sanitary? There is an unimaginable amount of fish crap in that pond.”
> 
> \+ [twitter](https://twitter.com/peachfreezy/)  
> \+ [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.qa/peachtones/)


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